Indian Stealth Fighter AMCA Approaches Another Milestone As DRDO Seeks CCS Approval

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has approached the Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) for the release of funds for the development of Made-in-India stealth fighter aircraft, Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

Under the AMCA project, the aim is to build an indigenous twin-engine fifth-generation fighter aircraft, with advanced stealth and supercruise abilities, capabilities to perform data fusion and multi-sensor integration with the active electronically-scanned array radars.

Earlier, a DRDO official on the sidelines of Aero India 2023 had claimed that the AMCA had completed its critical design review and the DRDO will now approach the government to sanction funds.

The DRDO chief Samir Kamat has announced that the first flight of Phase-1 of AMCA, with the American GE-F414 engine, will happen after seven years and its induction will take another three years.

However, the timeline for the Phase-2 of AMCA, Kamat said, could only be predicted after the partner for the co-development of the new higher-thrust engine is selected.

"We have been holding discussions with Safran France, GE from the US, and Rolls Royce from the UK," the DRDO chief said on the selection of a partner for the co-development of the higher thrust engine.

Moreover, the first prototype of light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas MK-II is expected to be rolled out next year.

The LCA Tejas MK-II is a 4++ generation single engine fighter aircraft which is powered by American GE F414 jet engines.

Last September, the CCS had sanctioned funds of Rs 10,000 crore towards the LCA Tejas MK-II project.